It's definitely hard to say without knowing more about this situation but when I have had renters who've dealt with identity theft in the past, they had filed a claim, and there would be something clearly noted on the report that a claim of theft had been filed or their credit would've been frozen.

(Sorry, my dear Friendly Fairbankians), most people won't spend money to go to Fairbanks and eat frozen moose when it's 40 degrees below zero.

I have heard of thermostats that you can install that have a minimum temperature setting (say, 50 or 55 degrees F) to automatically turn on the heat even if the tenant doesn't have the heater on, and we'd like to put those in to prevent frozen pipes. 

(Although this is a sort of frozen market with substantially less buying activity right now.)

This is after averaging out the costs of 1) roof, mechanicals, siding, flooring, etc. and dividing by their life span then also subtracting general maintenance costs (handyman type stuff frozen pipes, etc.) you see each year.

The ACH transfers are slow but reliable.Cash: dangerous to handle that much cash, easy to lose, have stolenChecks: bounced check fees are a painPaypal and some other services: I have heard horror stories of accounts being frozen for weird reasons

To answer your hypotheticals:1) Once you cross midnight on Day 45, your list is frozen in place and you cannot modify it any further. 

I'm an agent, so I'm not anti agent/broker, I just think there is a lot of housing supply frozen in ice because sellers need a real partner to work through various issues they have before they can sell.

Trying to manage this yourself is basically an open invitation for pretty big problems (e.g. break-ins/vandalism, frozen pipes/water damage, etc.) -- failing to hire a property manager in an effort to save some $$$ when you're not local AND you're not intimately familiar with the market is almost always a penny-wise, pound-foolish move.

Other rule is always heat your house to the minimum 60-65 to avoid frozen/ burst pipes going forward (you've learned that lesson first hand).